Dodge County, Wisconsin, recognized the growing threat of cyberattacks targeting local governments. With critical workloads spanning law enforcement, healthcare, and public records, the county needed a robust, modernized data protection strategy that could ensure fast recovery and maintain public trust.
“You never used to have to worry about people getting into your backup systems and completely wiping you out… That threat has become very real.”
— Josh Kohlhoff, Network Administrator, Dodge County
The county transitioned from a legacy backup system to a modern, integrated Dell PowerProtect Cyber Recovery solution with CyberSense® from Index Engines™. The implementation, originally planned in phases, accelerated due to the urgency of the threat landscape.
With data securely stored in an air-gapped Cyber Recovery vault, CyberSense plays a critical role by ensuring that backups are free from ransomware corruption and alerts if there is suspicion of an attack.
“It’s just a good fail safe to be able to scan your backups… If there’s a problem on one end, then there’s going to be a problem on the other end. And if you don’t have anything to alert to it, you’re going to have problems no matter how many copies of that data you have.”
— Josh Kohlhoff
CyberSense uses AI-powered machine learning and forensic analytics to scan backup data for signs of corruption from ransomware or other anomalies. It provides Dodge County with:
“We get a daily report from CyberSense. If it says success, that’s one less thing we have to worry about… If it doesn’t say success, then the day just got a little longer.”
— Josh Kohlhoff
Business Results
“We went from taking upward of 12, 14 hours to back up our file share, and now it’s right around an hour and 15 minutes. Restores are quick, too. We are much, much quicker than we ever were before with our previous product and we’re extremely happy with that.”
— Josh Kohlhof
The county’s proactive approach has not only improved operational efficiency but also bolstered public confidence. The integration of CyberSense® has transformed Dodge County’s approach to data protection from reactive to proactive. It’s not just about having backups—it’s about knowing which backups are clean and ready to restore at a moment’s notice.
With the right strategy and solutions in place, Dodge County can be ready to respond quickly, minimize the impact of ransomware, and resume public services for its constituents.
“We have to answer to taxpayers. If they come to pay their taxes and we’re down, that’s not acceptable.”
— Josh Kohlhoff
